


One Truth, Two Hearts

by Josh89



Category: Castle (TV 2009)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Don't copy to another site, Episode Fix-it, F/M, LOTS OF SPOILERS, consider yourselves warned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-21
Updated: 2019-11-21
Packaged: 2021-02-18 12:33:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21511105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh89/pseuds/Josh89
Summary: AU, an alternate ending to 'Always'. After their argument causes Kate to realize that she can't risk losing Rick, she goes racing after him, confronting him in the street outside of her apartment, and what she has to say will surprise even him. Spoilers for many episodes prior to 'Always'.
Relationships: Kate Beckett/Richard Castle
Kudos: 8





	One Truth, Two Hearts

Her feet pounded on the sidewalk as she raced after the man who was walking away from her, unheeding of the pleading tone in her voice. "Castle, wait! Please! Let me explain!"  
"What's to explain, Detective?" the writer shot back.  
"You remembered every word that I said to you the day that you were shot, and you didn't even have the guts to tell me that you remembered. You clearly don't feel the same way about me as I do about you".  
She winced at the sheer coldness of his words and the accusatory tone his voice had suddenly slipped into, and she knew that it was only a matter of time before he walked out of her life forever. She had to say what she had to say, and fast. "That's not true! I love you too, Castle. I am madly, insanely, in love with you. And I am so fucking sorry that I lied to you about my true feelings for so long, but this, what I have to tell you now, is the absolute, total, truth! If I let you walk out of my life, I will regret it until the very day that I die. I would never forgive myself for losing you, Castle, because you are the one consistent thing in my life. I can always count on you to be there and not change. I can look to you and know how our lives are going because you are a solid marker by which to judge things. So please, just listen to what I have to say!".  
The writer whirled to face her, taking a couple of steps closer to the younger woman. "You'd better start explaining damned quickly then, Beckett...".  
"The day after my shooting, I told you the truth. I barely remembered anything at the time, and I had no memory whatsoever of you telling me that you loved me. The three months that I spent at my father's cabin, away from the city... God, Castle, I was so conflicted. I wanted you to be there with me because I had fallen so badly for you by that point, but I didn't want you to see me the way I was at the time. I was a wreck, Castle. I was broken, traumatized, and I felt I had to get better before I could be the woman you deserved. I cannot apologize enough for not keeping in contact with you, for not even texting or emailing you, but I knew that, if I did, I would want to see you. For me, that summer was about healing, both physically and mentally. Both from the injuries dealt by Cole Maddox's sniper rifle at the funeral, and from the worst of my PTSD, from the nightmares that the shooting caused me. I can never apologize enough for what I put you through that summer, but just know that this time, I have told you the unconditional, complete, un-altered, truth" she said, exhaling softly.  
"Then why didn't you tell me that you remembered sooner?" he queried.  
She couldn't help but notice that the tone of his voice had shifted. Still angry, still accusatory, but definitely warmer, more willing to listen to what she had to say in her defense. She supposed that that, at least, was something. "Because I was afraid. Afraid that if I did, I'd still end up pushing you away again. That even if we did start dating, one of us would pull away, and then we'd lose everything that makes us work so amazingly well together. I was so selfish, Castle. I didn't want to risk losing you as a friend, so I reasoned that I, therefore, couldn't take the risk of telling you the truth. I can see that my silence has hurt you so fucking badly, but I promise you that I am going to try my hardest to heal the damage it has done. All I ask is that you let me".  
He blinked, and within a few seconds, he was standing right next to her, leaning against the wall of her apartment building. "Why are you telling me this now, then?" he asked, his tone once again completely level, completely calm.  
She knew that he was trying to process this, and she appreciated that more than she would ever let him know. It was time to tell him the truth. "Because you have a right to know. Because you called me out on something that would have probably resulted in me dying. Because you may never forgive me for what I have done, but the truth may at least make it easier. Because you were right when you said that I hide in nowhere relationships with men I don't love. Because you never gave up on me, even when I made it so tempting to do so. Because, no matter who happens to suggest otherwise, I am your biggest fan, and have been since... well, since my mother's death. Because I broke up with Demming to go to the Hamptons with you (even though you'd already agreed to go with Gina). Because that kiss that we shared during the Hal Lockwood case was something I want to experience again and again, always with you. Because before I lost consciousness in the freezer during that bomb threat case (the one where we worked with Mark Fallon), I was about to say that I loved you. Because when we thought that that bomb was going to explode, as you reached for the wires, there was nobody I'd rather have been standing there with than you. Because that night in L.A, I came back out of my hotel room. Because part of the reason I broke up with Josh was that my father told me that he (Josh) hit you. Because when you kissed Serena Kaye, the insurance investigator who was helping us with that museum case, I couldn't help but wish that it was me you were kissing instead. Because that time you showed up with Jacinda at the crime scene, I was finally ready to tell you that I was in love with you. Because you are the person I want to spend the rest of my life with because I think I've always known that you were my one and done, and because I am head over heels, madly, impossibly, insanely, in love with you. Because the past four years have been the best years of my life. Because our argument just before made me realize that I need to stop living in the past. Because I choose a life with you over my mother's case. Because you talked Esposito into helping me through my PTSD during the sniper case, and that's when it really started to come together for me, how much I had fallen in love with you. Because you tried to help me finally put my mother's case to rest and her killer behind bars, and I cannot thank you enough for what you did for me. Because you may have been keeping secrets from me as well, but you were only trying to save my life. Because I want to have 'little Castle babies' with you, as Maddie so eloquently put it two years ago... Because I want you, Richard Castle, and I hope only that you can forgive me and that you still feel the same way towards me".  
Castle's mouth dropped open. "Wow. Um... wow. That's a lot to digest".  
"Castle..."  
He chuckled, and whatever response she might have been about to come up with was suddenly cut off as he pressed his lips against hers in a searing kiss. Instantly, she felt herself responding, moaning quietly as his tongue slid past her lips, dancing inside of her mouth. As he pulled away suddenly, she raised an eyebrow at him. He smiled gently at her. "I know you just said you'd give up your mother's case, Kate, but, if you'll call Ryan and Esposito and get them to meet us in your apartment in about half an hour, I think I have a plan that could allow us to catch Cole Maddox. And I think it's a plan that you'll like".  
"Is it going to involve my new boyfriend putting himself in the line of fire again? Because if so, then I don't think I'm going to like it"  
Rick's heart skipped a beat as he heard the detective, the woman he had fallen in love with, referring to him by that term. New boyfriend... Damn, I like the sound of that... "Actually... No. It's going to involve two plainclothes detectives, an unmarked car, an empty apartment, a spreading rumor, a fully equipped tactical response team armed with M4 Carbines and a variety of other weapons, as well as bulletproof vests, a pair of handcuffs, an interrogation room... Oh, and a fire escape".  
"What..."  
"We make it appear that I couldn't stop you from looking into your mother's murder and that I plan to leave the Precinct for good. Your apartment will be empty tonight. Instead, you will spend the night at the loft, with me. If all goes as I'm expecting it to, Cole Maddox will take the bait, and show up at your apartment, to try and kill you once and for all. He'll break in through one of the windows up against the fire escape, and wait, probably in your bathroom or your bedroom, to finish you off when you're asleep. Ryan and Esposito, dressed in plain clothes, will be sitting in an unmarked police car, waiting for him to show up. As soon as he does, they'll give him a few minutes to let his guard down, and then call the tactical response team. They go in there and arrest him, hopefully, knock him unconscious as well, and then cuff him and take him back to the Precinct, throw his ass into an interrogation room, and soon we'll have all the answers we need to do some Dragon-slaying".  
"That... Is actually sheer fucking genius, Castle. It really is. Only one question though. How are we going to arrange for a tactical response team?"  
Castle scowled. "That's the one part of this plan you're not going to entirely like, Kate. We're going to have to trust Gates".  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Time skip~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Six hours and 35 minutes later, a dark figure stole silently up the fire escape steps, carefully cracked open the window on the desired floor, and slipped unnoticed into the apartment on the other side. Or at least, he believed that he was unnoticed. The truth was, one of the neighbors in a nearby apartment building had noticed the activity and had called the police. This, combined with the call that the two plainclothes detectives sitting in an unmarked car had just placed, was enough to send a fully equipped tactical response team racing to the location.  
Exactly seven hours later, they got to the apartment.  
Seven hours and 20 minutes later, a cuffed, and frustrated, Cole Maddox was escorted from Kate Beckett's apartment into a waiting police car.  
10 hours, 35 minutes, and 32 seconds later, Richard Castle's plan had worked out exactly as he had expected that it would. Captain Gates herself interrogated Cole Maddox, and she and Kate managed to extract from him all the information he had on the identity of one Mr. Smith.  
13 hours later, Kate Beckett finally had in her hands the files necessary to identify the man behind the conspiracy that surrounded her mother's murder.  
Two days later, she finally arrested the man, Senator William Bracken, also known as The Dragon.  
Three days later, Kate finally put her mother's murder behind her and started living her life again.  
Four days later, she and Rick officially confirmed that they were a couple. Gates told them they could continue working together, just as long as they remained professional at the Precinct.  
Five days later, the two of them re-admitted that they loved each other, this time not in or just after an argument, and not while one of them blacked out on the ground at a funeral.  
Six days later, Kate and Rick took the week off and went up to Rick's house in The Hamptons with Alexis.  
Seven days later, Rick gave Kate a key to the loft, and she gave him a key to her apartment as well.  
Two months later, Rick returned to the loft with a strange box, which he slipped into the safe in his office, telling Kate that it would all become clear soon enough.  
Five months later, Kate officially moved into the loft.  
Five months and 11 days later, Kate took Rick to her mother's gravestone for the first time and told him that her mother would have loved him.  
Six months later, Former Senator William Bracken was convicted on charges including conspiracy, murder, and blackmail, and was sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole.  
Six months and one day later, it was all over.  
Six months, one week and three days later, Castle told Alexis that he was planning to ask Kate to marry him.   
Six months, one week, three days and five hours later, Castle asked Jim Beckett for his blessing to propose to Kate. And it was granted.  
Six months, one week, three days, 16 hours, 24 minutes, and 10 seconds later, Castle took Kate out for dinner, where he finally revealed the contents of the box and asked Kate to marry him.  
Six months, one week, three days, 16 hours, 25 minutes later, Kate said yes.  
Six months, one week and four days later, Kate asked Lanie and Alexis to be her maid of honor and one of her bridesmaids respectively. Both agreed.  
One year, three months, and one week later, Kate and Rick got married on the beach in the back of Castle's house in the Hamptons.  
One year, three months, one week, and one day later, they were on their honeymoon, in Venice.  
One year, three months, three weeks later, they got back from their honeymoon.  
One year, three months, three weeks and one day later, Kate discovered she was pregnant.  
One year, six months later, Kate and Rick found out that they were having twins. A boy and a girl.  
Two years and three weeks later, Rebecca 'Bex' Leigh Castle and Leo Gage Castle were born.  
Two years, three weeks, and one minute after they came up with the plan to catch Maddox for good, Rick and Kate finally had the life together that they had fought so extraordinarily hard for, with the family they wanted to share it with. And not even Rick himself could have possibly imagined a happier ending.


End file.
